Lottery ticket games are known and are provided in different formats, including instant-win type games and online or drawing-based games. With an instant ticket game, a player typically scratches one or more places on a ticket to determine if he or she is a winner. With drawing-based games, a player typically selects several numbers from a pool of numbers, and a lottery drawing of numbers (such as from a bin of ping pong balls, for example) is conducted later to determine whether there are any winners. Lottery tickets can be physical tickets purchased at retailers or virtual tickets purchased and played online.
Social media is a separate and more recent phenomenon, whereby individuals can interact in a variety of ways online through social media-related web systems, such as Facebook™, LinkedIn™, Twitter™, MySpace™ and other sites. Various functions are available at these sites, with a typical theme being the sharing of various types of information with a group or network of known friends and contacts.
The present invention combines aspects of social media with traditional lottery games. In one aspect, the present invention provides a system and method for new lottery games, where the numbers or icons that are traditionally used are replaced by player profiles.